People are going crazy. We are losing our minds. We are destroying ourselves and each other. How can we make sense of the madness?

God gives the answer. We have committed two sins: We have forsaken Him, the spring of living water, and have dug our own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. The Apostle Paul puts it like this: We have exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator. Why does this have such dire consequences?

In Romans 8, Paul exposes a problem with trusting in what has been created,

For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Here Paul reminds us of all of creation’s “bondage to decay” because of our sin. Creation is decaying. It is fleeting. Dependance on the temporary ends in despair. Have you ever trusted in something that gave way? The immediate feeling of terror leaves one grasping for anything nearby to hold on to. While climbing a tree, I once trusted in a branch that broke under my weight. In desperation I reached for anything to help stop my fall. I was terrified as the lower branches that once held my weight could no longer handle my increasing downward momentum. Likewise, when the things we trust in give way, we immediately reach out to that old relationship, next vacation, or nearest drug to stop the fall. We struggle to survive at all costs, bringing others down in the process. Can anything stop our great descent?

Hallelujah, there is One who can bear the weight of the fall. There is a Savior from the corruption.

“The sovereign LORD says, “Behold, I laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.” – Isaiah 28:16

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” – 1 Cor 3:11

May the chaos within and without cause us to lift our eyes and see the man upon the cross. He bore our curse and did not see decay. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father. He is the eternal foundation we must build our lives upon. In Christ alone, our hope is steadfast and out of this world.

In Christ,

—Roger Garrison